Bacteria 



mad dogs died under the most horrible circumstances. 

 Between 1886 and 1897, 17,337 cases have been 

 treated under the Pasteur system, and the mortality is 

 only 4.8 per cent., less than one per 200 cases. 



Should any one be bitten by a mad dog the wound 

 should be cauterised as quickly as possible, and then 

 the patient should travel to the nearest Pasteur institute 

 as quickly as he possibly can. 



When people are vaccinated by the ordinary method, 

 the relatively feeble cow-pox germ enters the body, 

 calling up armies of phagocytes and quantities of anti- 

 toxins or both. If the person is infected by a real 

 smallpox germ the latter finds itself unable to make 

 any progress. 



People forget now-a-days the number of deaths from 

 smallpox, and the horrible disfigurement which used to 

 be common enough but which one never sees now- 

 a-days. 



In the larger German towns vaccination was com- 

 pulsory from 1885 to 1887, and the mortality from 

 smallpox was one per 200,000. Taking the same 

 period the deaths from this disease were in Hungary 

 236, in Italy 100, in France 78, and in Austria 74, all 

 per 200, ooo. 3 Vaccination was not compulsory in 

 these countries though no doubt often employed, for 

 it was discovered a long time ago (by Edward Jenner, 

 1749-1823). 



Other methods of resisting bacteria are equally in- 

 genious. 



Sometimes the disease germs are imprisoned in cap- 

 sules and placed in the body so that only their poisonous 

 toxins enter the system and not the bacilli themselves. 

 This calls into existence antitoxins which preserve against 

 an accidental infection. The serum of some animal 

 which has outlived the particular disease is sometimes 



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